The End of the Beginning

This is the last Society of Honor blog for 2012. I would like to thank some people.

This is the year when the Society of Honor by Joe America ended its vanity period and began to have some influence in the Philippines. Articles penned here during 2012 were picked up by two mainstream newspaper columnists for wide readership. One article ended up with President Aquino as we had it reported here directly by Kris Aquino. We know articles have reached into Congress and the President's staff.

The target audience has two parts: (1) educated Filipinos who can craft articulate views on topical issues, and (2) Filipino opinion makers and leaders who can undertake or influence constructive acts. The first interact with each other to speak to the second. The second are largely silent, as they must be to remain detached from hard opinions in order to represent all the people.

This is not the most popular blog in the Philippines, nor would I ever expect it to be. Satire and literature and a foreigner's ideas are not mainstream in the Philippines. We grant the fine top-popularity distinction to Raissa Robles and her amazing, edgy, well-researched articles and her loquacious cadre of CPM commenters.

But, without question, the Society has its valuable niche as a source for cross-cultural commentary. As a place for rich ideas and a little literate entertainment.

Many new visitors to the site have a pattern. They come in on a link, get curious, then start to browse. They find another article they like and post it on their Facebook site or other venue.

From that, new readers come in for a peek.

When they arrive, what do they find? They find opinions and observations all over the board, generally dealing with the Philippines, often being reflections on cross-cultural conflicts of style or behavior. There is no single category of writing here. Readers find offbeat presentations that can be literary, analytical, humorous, irreverent, passionate, and sometimes obtuse. Once in a while, even wrong.

Our job is not to win arguments, but to have them. Being wrong is simply the risk of doing provocative business. Often we can provoke new thinking without arguments. That's good, too.

Readership is uncompromisingly intelligent. It appears to tend toward a libertarian view, but not entirely. It is mostly Filipino, but not entirely. It tends toward older contributors, but not entirely. It is mostly male, but not entirely.

The quality of discussion this year was raised by guest articles from the following contributors:

• Edgar Lores
• Cha Nerissa Datu
• Andrew Lim
• Coco Villa

Different minds, different experiences, different interests, new ideas.

These guest writers have added greatly to the site, to its variety and conceptual reach. I've thanked them individually for the articles they have submitted, but I'd like to thank them here, publicly, because they bring energy to the discussion, a certain freshness. They bring points and counterpoints outside the reach of JoeAm's knwledge or writing talent. I hope we get even more guest writings in 2013.

Put it on your to do list, eh?  Join the fray. Perhaps tweak a congressman's ear, or the President's. Or your fellow Filipinos'.

I've always said JoeAm's articles are not what the blog is about. The blog is about the joining of good thinking through commentary. Call it the chemistry of the conversation.

As the year ends, and we move into new territory, I particularly want to thank Edgar Lores for his regular elaborations and clarifications, 1.1 to 10.9. He's a genius. And he has been an anchor for the blog. I call him an anchor because he has provided the sound center-post of cogent thought that pulls JoeAm's  spontaneous, wayward and off-beat remarks back into meaning. He is the interpreter, in a way. Masterful at digging specific lessons from the sometimes esoteric commentary.

Edgar, thank you for all that you have given to this blog this past year.

If it were practical, I'd list the names of all the people who offered up comments this year. The list is  long. If I list only some, I am unfair to the rest. So I shall refrain. Y'all know the regulars, and they make for a great Society, rich in personality, rich of mind and heart.

Every comment offered to this blog is like a brick in a building. And our building was strong and elaborate this past year.

Thank you literate masons all so very much. I hope more join in the conversations during 2013.

What else did we do this past year? Angry Maude made her debut in 2012. I hardly think an angry, frazzled battleaxe cousin really counts as a guest contributor. We also named the Top 5 Blogs of the Philippines, due for a refresher in a few weeks. We awarded several Golden Bluttos, awards of great indistinction.

We recognized that kids ought to be central to the values we prize.

JoeAm narrowed his 2016 favored presidential aspirants down to Jun Abaya, Tony Guingona, and Sonny Angara, with Mar Roxas awaiting review. By the end of 2013, Joe will decide which one candidate he believes is best for 2016. The early rendition is done intentionally to improve the likelihood the discussion will have  influence in how things shake out.

We identified four institutions that work against the best interest of the Philippines: (1) the anti bloggers, (2) the political Catholic Church (distinguished from the local service-oriented Church), (3) China, and (4) the chronically corrupt.

We parsed cross-cultural attributes of American and Filipino ways of life. We engaged in politics and examined this incident or that. We ridiculed those worthy of the distinction. We joked and played satire games.

We took ourselves seriously, but not too seriously.

So I say, fellow members of our fine Society, let's get on with 2013, eh? January 2, we begin again. Happy fools among happy fools, circling the prickly pear and turning the Philippine upside right.

Be of sharp mind and good heart in 2013.

Thanks for a great 2012.

Write on.

Sexual Predators, Bloggers and Senator Sotto

You da man! You da woman! You da Filipino who is clued in.

Who be da most reviled man in the Philippines these days, eh? Clue: It is not Puno. It's not Enrile. It's not even Trillanes.

What entity of government be da least respected in the Philippines these days, eh? Clue: this body passed a bill threatening to send Philippine free speech back into the stone ages whilst simultaneously ignoring gross ethical violations by one of its own. It also featured a mud-wrestling match yesterday that was only missing the babes and boobs in bikinis.

Congratulations to Top Blogger Raissa Robles on her latest article detailing how Senator Sotto is acting to back up his threat to go after bloggers who criticize him.  He appears to have surreptitiously inserted an amendment into the Cybercrime Bill that includes online libel as one of the crimes to be policed. The amendment was not objected to when it was proposed during the heat of the Corona impeachment trial, so it was added to the bill. Then it was approved, all the way up through the President's signature.

It is now the law of the land.

It appears to be a case of fine print ignored, or if not ignored, not thought through as to how the provision can be used to suppress free expression. It is a step backward in the Philippine drive toward a more respected human rights standing in the global and investment communities.

The Cybercrime Bill creates a policing unit under the Executive Branch:

• SEC. 24. Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center. — There is hereby created, within thirty (30) days from the effectivity of this Act, an inter-agency body to be known as the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC), under the administrative supervision of the Office of the President, for policy coordination among concerned agencies and for the formulation and enforcement of the national cybersecurity plan.”

So we will soon have a police force assigned to the internet. Rather like China. These cybercops will hunt down crimes. Hackers. Stalkers online. People peddling girls online. People selling sex online. Pedophiles online.  Bloggers issuing uncomfortable opinions online.

Here is what we are hypothetically likely to see:

• Senator Sotto once again steals another author's original work and uses it word for word without attribution.

• A blogger who runs a web site calls the senator a moron for doing it again. Commenters drop off their notes screaming "moron, moron!"

• Senator Sotto registers a complaint with the cybercops.

• The cybercops, knowing that a senator's reputation is of national security interest and must be protected, file a libel case against the blogger.

• The case gets kicked around for 5 years and eventually reaches the Supreme Court.

• The Supreme Court considers whether or not the description of Senator Sotto is disparaging. That is, is he a moron or not, in the context in which the word is used?

• The Supreme Court reads the Constitution and rules in favor of the blogger. The libel provision of the Cybercrime law is struck down as unconstitutional.

You see, this amendment has turned a well-intended law inside out, into a law that is potentially of use to suppress free speech.

Sex predators and bloggers, pulled together under one law.

Hell, this LAW is a libel to bloggers for equating online opinions with the acts of sex predators.

JoeAm will henceforth refer to the new law as the "Cybercrime and Totalitarianism Enhancement Law".

Well, the law is fact. And it will reshape what is said online. For sure, JoeAm will change his words.

Rather than say "Senator Sotto is an ethically challenged vindictive thug" he will say:

• "Is it possible that Senator Sotto is an ethically challenged vindictive thug?", or

• "Some might say Senator Sotto is an ethically challenged vindictive thug.", or

• "I fear that the good Senator Sotto will come across as an ethically challenged vindictive thug."

Or maybe my readers in America and Australia and Europe and the Middle East will send in comments calling Senator Sotto an ethically challenged vindictive thug.

To that point, I have amended the legal terms of this blog found in the tab "Policy and Terms".

The paragraph that once said:

• Comments are a shared property of the commenter and the Society of Honor. Excerpts from comments may be freely taken and re-published as long is attribution is granted to the commenter (name or alias) and the Society of Honor by Joe America.

Has been changed to read:

• Comments are the property of the commenter who grants the Society of Honor full right of re-publication and use. Excerpts from comments may be freely taken and re-published as long is attribution is granted to the commenter (name or alias) and the Society of Honor by Joe America.

This little tweak assigns responsibility for the content of comments to the commenter.

The problem with the Cybercrime and Totalitarianism Enhancement Law is that it puts bloggers who welcome robust commentary in a bind. The bloggers have a choice: (1) tighten up their editorial ship and exclude any comment that anyone might conceivably consider libelous (a virtually impossible task), or (2) allow robust and open commentary and significantly increase their risk of getting sued for publishing libelous words.

I am not an attorney and am wholly unqualified to parse comments for possible libelous content. I furthermore find it offensive that this law would insist that I become an agent of the State's newfound totalitarian twist to dampen free speech.

I am for free speech. I am for people being able to call JoeAm an unmitigated moron, an asshole of the Nth degree, and to instruct him to get his ass back to the States. You see, I can counter words with words. That is the beauty of freedom.

If my response to an insult is to try to jail or fine the author of the offensive words, I am, at heart, a totalitarian, vindictive thug.

It is too bad that senators who many would consider ethically challenged and ignorant as to the importance of freedom of expression don't get it.

They will, it time.

The internet. A new era. A new power.

Use it well.

That, after all, is the intent of the Cybercrime legislation. To stop crimes.

It is also a useful medium with which to call out the ethically challenged. After all, the Senate appears unwilling to take up this righteous task.

And so the entire Senate is called out, too. Some might say they are not much better than clowns when they see an ethical violation right on the floor of the Senate and merely turn their heads away.

Ignore a gross ethics violation. Pass a law that may be used to suppress free speech.

You can write your own description as to what kind of leaders these are and what kind of future the Philippines has with them at the helm.

JoeAm's "Top 5 Most Influential Bloggers in the Philippines"

I have spent several days reviewing every blog site I can get my link-clicker on. It is amazing how many blogs are out there dealing with the Philippine condition. All  you do is take one blog roll and it leads to another and another and soon you have about 100 sites on hand. Half of them are expired, some are lazy and slow, and others are active.  Lawyers, educators, politicians, satirists, priests, journalists, retired Americans, screenwriters . . . a wide range.

I'm sorry I can't do justice to the quality writing that is out there. There are some great commentaries, generally lost in the internet woods, I fear. There are just too many sites to keep up with.

A lot of the sites are what I would call vanity blogs. Infrequent articles, not a lot of audience or commentary. Just the writer taking the opportunity to spout off about something. Often eloquently.

Well, to pick the top bloggers, it is important to have some criteria, some guidelines, some standards. What makes one blog site "better" than another?  It is not the political or social agenda some take up (anti-Aquino or pro-RH, for instance). There's nothing wrong with having an ideology and passion.  It has something to do with being pertinent to the Philippine condition, being well-written and thought provoking, and, indeed, being popular. The more people it reaches, if quality and pertinence are identical, the better it is.

Of course, if it is trash, more chat-room than intellectual, it is not "better" than a less popular but more substantial set of articles and comments.

Get Real Contributor

I think reader comments say a lot, actually, about the quality of a blog. That's why, by definition, I only have considered the "engaging" blogs, those which welcome dialogue and foster discussion. One-way reports may be news or commentary, but it is not the kind of rich blogging I'm trying to recognize.

It is easy to find sites that address the Philippine condition. It is sometimes difficult to say which is more important. Popularity or quality. Take the case of MLQIII who rarely blogs, but offers extraordinarily well-researched and thoughtful pieces. Where do you put him?

I have concocted a scale to sort this out It is called the "JoeAm Influence-o-meter". MLQIII ranks low because he simply is not out there enough.

And what about Rappler? Is that a blog site? Or sites that repost what others have written?  Friend manuelbuencamino's articles appear on perhaps five or more different blogs. Well, I put Rappler in the category of a "news and commentary" site, not a blog site. It is not built on dialogue. And sites that collect and reblog posts from elsewhere do not offer the original thought that makes up what I call a "well-written" article.

Rappler is on my daily reads, but it is not a blog site where dialogue is prominent.

What about sites like Get Real Post that have intelligent commentary but also a lot of chat-room interplay and insults, and which even encourage personal attacks if it advances the agenda? Is there a penalty for that?

You damn betcha.

If you are building, you are building. If you are tearing down, you are not building. Indeed, insult is aimed at driving away commentary, so it would be the opposite of "engaging". Furthermore, a part of JoeAm's influence evaluation has to do with the fundamental goal of building a BETTER Philippine condition. Not replicating the venom and vendetta that makes a WORSE Philippine condition.

Here are JoeAm's "Top 5 Engaging Filipino Bloggers":

Raissa Robles

1. Raissa Robles offers by far the most active blogging site in the Philippines. Inputs range in the thousands for some article. Some of the comments are "toss-offs" but many offer important perspectives that build on the original article. There are so many comments that she has to employ a decimal system of indexing them. The articles are topical, varied and well written. Many have just the right kind of "edge" to provoke healthy discussion. Without a doubt, Raissa is the number one blogger in the Philippines.

2. Noemi Dado is the principal behind three blogging sites: (a) blogwatch.ph, (b) blogwatch.tv and (c ) momblogger.  The .ph site offers high quality articles, well-written and pertinent to the Philippine condition; comment is rare. The .tv site offers timely social/political news, advocacies and commentary; it ran a daily account of the Corona trial, for instance; comments are light. The momblogger site deals with family issues and health, a "wholesome" perspective; it has a little more commentary. I have no idea why Noemi runs three separate efforts rather than one integrated effort. The main drawback to the persistent run of articles is the lack of vibrant discussion. The advantage is the volume of very timely and topical articles, well written, including advocacy pieces that are most enlightening. Dividing the effort over three sites seems . . . oh, unfocused. [N: Sorry for the original misspelling; I call my daughters by the wrong names, too. Joe)

3. Ellen Tordisillas is a journalist with a viewpoint and she offers them on two sites: ellentordesillas, which is commentary on the Philippine condition from several contributors, and The Vera Files, which is more or less an investigative journalism site ("Truth Is Our Business"). The articles are timely, topical and well written. Commentary is sometimes rich, often thin. She gets articles from numerous contributors. Again, having two different blogs seems to dilute the impact, and duplicate some content.

4. Benigno operates Get Real Post with a stable of good writers who follow his anti-Aquino agenda and pull in fairly active discussion. Ilda, especially attracts a good amount of commentary. The site includes active business, entertainment and technology sections, as well as articles about the Philippine condition. GRP gets dinged for tolerating abuse in favor of its agenda, the outcome of which is active commentary from "friends" and little of the constructive oppositional discussion that leads to fresh thinking. It may be my bias speaking, but the site seems to be getting smaller and tinnier, not deeper and richer.

The Real Joe Am?

5. The rest of us. I don't see anyone else close, but maybe I missed something fro the trampling of the blogging herds. BongV at AntiPinoy is off in his strident statistical land.  Cocoy can't quite seem to get ProPinoy untracked, perhaps because it is not a primary effort for him. Joe Am is unique in style and American perspective, and is on the rise, but doesn't yet have broad reach. There are some excellent topical sites out there: for economics, for updates on the Judiciary, for satire, for perspectives from priests. They aren't active enough to sustain much power on their own.

I'm amused by the vision of blogging as being similar to the Philippines itself. Very tribal (fractionalized) and ego-bound. Missing is the unity, the community, that makes it a powerful force. The defunct Filipino Voices came closest to representing an integrated community of bloggers without political agenda, where wide-ranging comments were offered. It died from lack of editorial attention and jealous in-fighting amongst the participating readers and writers.

Perhaps we'll see some enterprising soul take several the existing blogs and put them together in a new influential force that might give Raissa come competition.

Or I'll just have to persuade Boo to write some more fine critiques and leverage JoeAm to a broader audience.